HOW I GOT INTO 4 IVIES, T10s + 7 T20s | Yale, Columbia, Brown, Imperial, +more! | Stats, ECs, Advice
Summary
TLDRPeoplea shares their extensive college application journey, detailing their experiences with standardized testing, course rigor, and extracurricular activities. They emphasize the importance of taking challenging courses, showcasing impact through numbers, and enjoying the process. With a total of 19 applications across the US, UK, and the Netherlands, Peoplea highlights the subjectivity of admissions and encourages applicants to apply broadly, find the right fit, and not to take rejections personally.
Takeaways
- 🎓 The speaker, Peoplea, applied to 19 colleges across the US, UK, and the Netherlands, emphasizing the importance of finding the right fit for each individual.
- 📝 Peoplea's video is aimed at providing insights into their college application process, which may help younger students strategize their high school journey.
- 🏆 Peoplea's background includes Italian and Costa Rican dual citizenship, which influenced their application as an international student.
- 📚 The speaker discusses the importance of standardized testing, particularly the SAT, and shares their personal journey of improving their scores over time.
- 🔢 Peoplea highlights the significance of taking higher-level math courses early on to demonstrate interest and capability in STEM fields.
- 🏅 The transcript details Peoplea's extracurricular activities, including co-founding startups and their involvement in Model United Nations, showcasing the value of diverse experiences.
- 🏆 Peoplea emphasizes the importance of showcasing impact through numbers and achievements in their extracurricular activities for college applications.
- 🎼 The speaker's involvement in music, including composing and achieving a high level of certification, demonstrates the importance of pursuing passions beyond academics.
- 🏀 Athletics, such as basketball, is another area where Peoplea excelled, showing the value of maintaining a balance between sports and academics.
- 🏛 Peoplea's experience working with tech startups and contributing to significant funding rounds illustrates the impact of real-world work experience on a college application.
- 🏆 The transcript includes a discussion on honors and awards, underlining the importance of recognizing and including significant achievements in the application process.
Q & A
How many schools did Peoplea apply to for college?
-Peoplea applied to a total of 19 schools.
What was Peoplea's initial PSAT score in their junior year?
-Peoplea scored a 1250 on the PSAT, with a 650 in Reading Writing and a 600 in Math.
What was Peoplea's highest SAT score and when did they achieve it?
-Peoplea achieved their highest SAT score of 1540 on December 2nd, 2023.
How did Peoplea's SAT scores progress from their first to their last attempt?
-Peoplea's SAT scores improved from a 1470 to a 1540, with significant improvement in the Math section.
What was the significance of Peoplea taking higher-level math classes early in high school?
-Taking higher-level math classes early demonstrated Peoplea's interest and commitment to learning, especially for a potential STEM field.
What extracurricular activity did Peoplea consider their core activity?
-Peoplea considered co-founding Upd Drop, an autonomous drone delivery service startup, as their core activity.
What was the outcome of Peoplea's participation in the World Robot Olympiad?
-Peoplea's team won second place worldwide at the World Robot Olympiad out of 40,000 students.
How did Peoplea's involvement in Model United Nations (MUN) contribute to their high school experience?
-Peoplea served as Secretary General at the largest MUN conference in Central America and attended Harvard MUN, which was transformative and a significant part of their high school career.
What advice does Peoplea give regarding the college application process?
-Peoplea advises to apply broadly, focus on course rigor, showcase impact through numbers, and most importantly, enjoy the journey without taking things too seriously.
What was Peoplea's approach to balancing academics and extracurricular activities?
-Peoplea focused on excelling in their chosen activities, showcasing their impact, and maintaining a serious mindset while also enjoying the process.
How did Peoplea's international background influence their college application strategy?
-Peoplea's dual citizenship and international background allowed them to apply as an international applicant to schools in the US, UK, and the Netherlands, adding diversity to their application.
Outlines
📚 College Application Journey and Standardized Testing
The speaker, Peoplea, introduces their extensive college application process, having applied to 19 schools across the US, UK, and the Netherlands. They are still undecided but will announce their choice soon. The video aims to share strategies that worked for them during high school to improve viewers' chances of college acceptance. Peoplea emphasizes the importance of standardized testing, detailing their PSAT and SAT scores, and the strategy of retaking tests to improve scores. They highlight the significance of a high Math score for engineering applicants and their final SAT super score of 1560.
🎓 Challenging Courses and Academic Excellence
Peoplea discusses the importance of taking challenging courses, starting with higher-level math in their freshman year. They mention the advantage of taking advanced classes early to demonstrate interest and capability, especially for STEM fields. The speaker also talks about their experience with the IB program, including their grades and predicted scores for college applications. They stress the value of course rigor over numerical grades and the flexibility of different educational systems.
🚀 Entrepreneurial Ventures and Extracurricular Activities
The speaker details their involvement in various entrepreneurial ventures, starting with co-founding 'Upd Drop', an autonomous drone delivery service, which won second place worldwide at the World Robot Olympiad. They also mention 'Syndicate', an all-in-one productivity system, and 'D.XYZ', an open-source mobile app. Peoplea underscores the importance of showcasing impact through numbers and achievements in their college applications. They also discuss their experience working at 'Aviado' and 'Lemonade', and their role as CTO in an AI study assistant startup.
🏀 Balancing Athletics, Music, and Academics
Peoplea shares their athletic background, including playing basketball for the national team and being a team captain at a local club. They also discuss their musical achievements, such as being a section leader in the school's symphonic orchestra and holding a Yamaha Japan certification for advanced aptitude in piano. The speaker emphasizes the importance of showcasing consistency, dedication, and the ability to excel in multiple areas, including both academics and extracurricular activities.
🏆 Recognitions and Awards in High School
The speaker lists their honors and awards, starting with their significant achievement at the World Robot Olympiad, both at the national and international levels. They also mention receiving a grant from 1517 fund, a Yamaha Japan certification, and certifications in pre-calculus and calculus from the Technical University of Costa Rica. Peoplea advises to list awards in order of relevance and to highlight the impact of each achievement.
🤔 College Admissions: Subjectivity and Personal Growth
In the final paragraph, Peoplea reflects on the subjective nature of college admissions, sharing their own experiences of being accepted to Yale but rejected by Princeton, and vice versa. They encourage viewers to apply broadly but wisely, and to find schools that fit their needs. The speaker emphasizes the importance of enjoying the journey, having fun, and not taking the process too seriously, as life outcomes are determined by hard work, discipline, and enjoyment of the process.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡College Application
💡Standardized Testing
💡IB Diploma
💡Extracurricular Activities
💡Honors and Awards
💡Course Rigor
💡Predicted Grades
💡International Applicant
💡Startup
💡Model United Nations (MUN)
💡Subjectivity in Admissions
Highlights
Applied to 19 schools across the US, UK, and the Netherlands.
Shared strategies that worked for their college application process.
Emphasized the importance of standardized testing for college applications.
Achieved a 1540 SAT score, with 750 in Reading Writing and 790 in Math.
Discussed the significance of taking higher-level math classes early in high school.
Mentioned participating in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.
Highlighted the role of extracurricular activities in the college application.
Co-founded Upd Drop, an autonomous drone delivery service startup.
Won second place worldwide at the World Robot Olympiad.
Founded Syndicate, an all-in-one productivity system with over 31,500 users.
Worked as a mobile engineer and later became CTO of an AI study assistant.
Served as President of the school's Math Honor Society.
Played basketball for the national team and was a team captain at a local club.
Participated in Model United Nations, serving as Secretary General.
Achieved Yamaha Japan certification for advanced aptitude in piano.
Received the Manishi Grant from 1517 fund, a US-based venture capital firm.
Encouraged applying broadly to colleges and finding the right fit.
Stressed the importance of enjoying the journey and not taking the process too seriously.
Transcripts
[Music]
hello there my name is peoplea and just
a little bit ago I included my college
application journey I applied to a total
of 19 schools it was 13 in the US five
in the UK and two in the
Netherlands um I'm still deciding where
I'm going to go but I'll be announcing
where I'll go soon however I did want to
make this video to sort of give you an
idea of what worked for me what
potentially you could be doing if you're
a freshman sophomore junior or even
senior
uh at the time of
watching to improve your chances
obviously it's subjective uh to each
person however it did really help me
over the course of high school to be
able to see oh okay perhaps that's a
good strategy I could pursue this type
of research opportunity or perhaps I
should focus more on my startup this
worked really well for this person and
I've seen this pattern Etc so compare
and contrast with other videos uh you
know the classic how I got into the IB
League video how I got into Stanford MIT
all these videos they're great however
you must remember that it is subjective
and it really depends on the person and
it's very much circumstantial so quick
background about me I'm Italian by
origin I also have a dual citizenship uh
the Costa Rican citizenship so obviously
I applied as an international applicant
to the US schools the UK schools into
the Netherland schools I'm going to be
focusing mostly on the US schools in
this video
all right so let's get into the fun
stuff standardized testing so in terms
of test thing I took the
PSAT in October of my junior year I
scored a 1250 a 650 in Reading Writing a
600 in math so obviously I didn't
qualify for National Merit scholar or
anything like that however I believe
that's only for US citizens anyway so it
wouldn't have mattered anyway but yeah
didn't do as well as I would have liked
on the PSAT so I studied a decent amount
not too much because of IB which I'll
get into later the IB diploma takes a
long time if you take it you know and so
couldn't focus on the SAT as much
however on May 6th 2023 so in May of my
junior year I took it
again uh in May of my junior year I took
the SAT the actual sat for the first
time and I scored a 1470 I got a 770
Reading Writing and a 700 in math and so
I was decently happy especially for it
being my first sat right cuz the PS
doesn't even count and you don't send it
and so I took it again in June a month
later uh hoping to improve this was the
June finishing junior year so going into
senior
year
and kind of went down uh to a 1410 so by
60 points to a 720 Reading Writing 690
math and that wasn't good for me cuz I
wanted to do engineering and I still do
and so studied over the course of the
summer uh focused a lot on math section
and on August 26 2023 I took it for the
third time I got a 1480 so still
couldn't crack the 1500 barrier it's not
like it was that important uh but I did
want to crack it I got 740 740 but then
on December 2nd
2023 I finally
achieved what I wanted which was to have
that really high mass score especially
for engineering as an international need
based applicant it was very important to
me to be able to stand out at least in
that regard standardized testing is not
everything and take it with a grain of
salt however it does help if you are
close to the Perfect Score I got a 1540
750 Reading Writing
790 math and so now my super score which
is the highest you take the highest
section score of any individual test so
your highest math your highest Reading
Writing combined and that's your super
score my super score was now at 1560 so
790 math on the December 2023 sat so
that being in my senior year very late
the last one I could take so that was
pretty clutch on my end if I do say so
myself uh and then oddly enough the
first sat official sat I did for reading
it was 770 which was my best score so
the first and the last were the charm
and so 15 60 was my SAT that I applied
to schools with in the
US right so moving on to courses in my
freshman year uh freshman and sophomore
year at my school you couldn't really
choose and do honors classes or do
anything of the sort it was mostly just
the math class you could either choose
standard level or higher level um I went
with higher level however in 9th grade I
was able to sneak into the 10th grade
extended or higher level Class E I think
they call it extended level uh because
in 8th grade I had taken nth grade math
and so they let me do that and so that's
why on my courses transcript it shows up
as math 10 in 9th grade um so that was a
I think a huge plus factor and if you
can do that I would encourage that
especially if you want to go into
engineering for example or some sort of
stem field try to get into these higher
level math class especially early on
show that you're interested and racious
about learning uh especially before you
know those classes are even available I
had to push for it with my school admin
uh it was a whole ordeal and so try to
do that sort of stuff even if it's not
allowed initially try to make it happen
that you don't necessarily have to it's
very granular but it's things like that
that show your attitude and will to
change and could even give you something
to talk about for your essays uh about
how you instill change for people who
wanted to learn more about math for
example in Ni grade uh and the rest of
my ninth grade classes are standards so
language and literature N9 Spanish nine
uh we were all required to take French
so I took French uh the one other class
besides math that we could choose was
our elective I chose entrepreneurship
for semester 1 and then design in
semester 2 although I believe design in
semester 2 was required so yes that's
how that went and then yes individuals
and societies American history nine uh
science n basically my school in n9th
and 10th grade they integrate all three
subjects math uh physics chemistry and
biology so we couldn't really choose it
was just science 9 and advanced band
that was well I guess that's the third
class we could choose we could choose
math our elective in the first semester
and then the other musical slart
elective I chose band uh and advanced
band because I'd be doing it for a while
and then physical education was still
requirement in ninth grade so that's
what I took so those were my ninth grade
classes it's all in a 1 through 7 IB
scale so seven is the Max uh and so yeah
that's what I obtained this is a small
conversion to uh 0200 SL the a through F
grading system in America it's rough
it's not exact the IB doesn't really do
that but that's how you can interpret
that so moving on to 10th grade in 10th
Grade it was much of the same you can
only choose a few classes there's the
core I won't go over those the ones I
chose were Advanced entrepreneurship
entrepreneurship Capstone which was
basically a personal project you could
work on your startup I just took used it
to work on my startup um and then
Advanced band again and then for my math
class now they allowed us to do
pre-calculus and so I did that which was
the highest level we could do it was a
dual enrollment class with a local
University here the Technical University
of Costa Rica also known as Tech uh and
so we did that and we did four exams
over the course of the Year outside of
school besides a normal class and those
exams counted as college credits and I
highly recommend you to do this take the
highest level courses you can challenge
yourself show them that you are really
thirsty for knowledge and pushing
yourself to the Limit because quite
frankly especially probably if you're
watching this you want to get into quite
competitive institutions and so you're
going to want that edge because at the
end of the day these institutions are
very difficult once you're there and you
need to show them that you can manage
the workload effectively and so do
things like that and so after grade 10 I
started the IB program in grade 11 and
basically my 11th and 12th grade classes
are the same it's the six core IB
diploma courses and then we take Tok
which is theory of knowledge um and yes
that basically rounds everything out and
so these are my grades for 11th grade I
got a seven and class as my final grade
which is the max and IB and these were
my predicted grades for uh the May 2024
exams which I'm about to sit next month
for IB these were the predicted grades I
used to apply to college as well I got a
predicted 45 essentially it's seriously
not necessary that you get a 45 you know
do your best that you can I've seen
people get into Harvard and Princeton
and Cambridge with a 37 so seriously it
doesn't even matter it depends what
school you're aiming to right look up
the requirements Etc this goes to all
programs if you take a levels if you're
just a traditional us high school
student with AP classes or perhaps not
even AP classes if you're in Australia
India Etc wherever you may be try to
excel but at the same time don't fix it
on the numbers just try to do the best
you can and perhaps most importantly
focus on course rigor so those were
classes moving on let's take a look at
extra
curriculars so I would actually read out
everything on the extracurriculars I'll
put a screenshot here of what I put on
Common App obviously there are 10 slots
on Common App Max I used all 10 however
it's not necessary so my first and
perhaps most important one was I
co-founded upd drop which was an
autonomous drint delivery service SL
startup we competed in the world Robo
Olympiad we obtained second place
worldwide after qualifying so we won
first place nationally second place
worldwide um out of I believe 40,000
students so this was definitely my core
activity um we raised a good amount of
money as well we were able to partner
with DHL here in Costa Rica for
prototyping and initial deliveries Etc
and so yeah essentially you can think of
it as Uber Eats but with drones do
highly encourage you to compete in
things especially in the realm of tech
there are a ton of competitions Etc try
to Showcase yourself work so hard and
try to try to exert uh some sort of fun
into the work that you do with some sort
of Big overarching Goal that was great
for me in terms of motivation in terms
of everything and the results are quite
nice after that so secondly um I
co-founded syndicate doapp syndicate was
an all-in-one productivity system for
real-time collaboration documents
editing your calendar scheduling tasks
for highlighting articles basically
everything thing it was sort of like a
poor man's version of notion before
notion was popular um so that's what we
did uh we were able to obtain over
31,500 users a good amount of active
weekly as well uh we began Venture
Capital procedures with Inon horowits
and other VC firms we were very young
this was like 14 15 years old my
co-founder and I although we did scalate
to a team of 15 across eight countries
so it was a pretty big deal but
definitely one of the first things I did
it was entering 9th grade between 8th
and 9th grade going into a little bit
10th grade uh and then sort of paused a
little bit came back in 11th and then
stopped again and so yeah that was
Syndicate which was my second largest
activity
thirdly uh to round out the computer
technology section startups uh it's d.
XYZ which is essentially an open- Source
mobile app to securely sell things to
your friends it's targeted towards JZ
Etc all links in the description won't
spend too much time on this 5,000 people
in the wait list uh you know I received
uh financing from 1517 fund which is a
us-based venture capital firm and yes
currently in data so still in progress
then I was President for the MUA so the
school math Honor Society uh I had a job
uh the winter of my junior year so in
between semesters and junior year at
aviato which is a burgeoning tech
startup uh and so I joined at a very
early stage I think we were roughly five
people or so I developed key features
and it directly contributed to avata
raising over $1.1 million in seed
funding from sequire capital and other
well-known BC firms so I do believe my
work there was critical especially at
that early stage and so this was sort of
a big thing that I included in my
college applications the important thing
about this is you want to show Numbers
you want to show that impact if you
notice in every single one where I can
I'm including numbers you know for
example there less than five employees
$1.1 million Etc all these different
things whatever it may be try to include
numbers try to show the impact that
you're doing right you work so hard
showcase it there's always probably a
number that you can include so my next
uh activity was another paid job first
off I was hired as a mobile engineer by
an Australian company called lemonade uh
between 10th grade and 11th grade in the
summer to work on their e-commerce
platform and then the founder was very
pleased with my work etc and so come
back in summer of 23 so between 11th and
12th grade I became co-founder with him
and I was CTO of an immersive AI study
assistant that catered towards the
Australian HSC high school diploma which
is their equivalent of the IB slap Etc
and so we were able to sell this to an
Australian educational technology
conglomerate called Art of smart for a
decent amount of money can't disclose
uh legally but uh this is what I
included in my application and I feel
like it does showcase how I push through
with something I became an employee
summer 10th and 11th grade and then came
back they were obviously up with my work
became co-founder and then saw it
through towards acquisition so you want
to show consistency as well and that you
can really contribute to something and
give your heart to any sort of
initiative as cliche as it sounds you
want to show that con consistency and
will to work on things and see them
through next up uh I played basketball
heavily 9th and 10th grade before IB
sort of crashed that down uh I was on
the national team for Costa Rica U6 I
played a few games with them uh Etc it
was for a decently short amount of time
only in 10th Grade because I had to quit
for IB in 11th grade however I was also
team captain at our Club here in Costa
Rica it's called ESU it's the number one
ranked youth club for basketball uh in
the country and so that was a big part
of my life Athletics I've continued that
with running personally and going to the
gym Etc however in terms of competitive
Athletics Varsity this is what I did the
last job I had uh and another activity
that I included was in the summer of
2021 so going Way Way Back Into between
9th and 10th grade it was at clout
wallet which was a mobile wallet to
manage creater tokens and track bit
clout gains so that was when the whole
bit clout range was going on uh and so
this was not my startup this was just a
job I had uh I worked in front end Etc
developed cryptography realtime
encryption a bunch of features as you
can see I'm showing impact and that
startup was valued at over a million
dollars when I was there and so again
I'm showing imp P showing how much I
earned Etc all these different things
you want to be sure you're doing that
and then for the final two activities
the second to last is Mu so Model United
Nations uh it's a huge part of my high
school career I love it dearly dearly
dearly it's incredibly transformative
highly recommended by the way I was
Secretary General at our conference it's
the largest in Central America it's held
at Lincoln School it's called LMU I was
it twice so I was under Secretary
General in 11th grade now this year in
12th grade I was Secretary General which
is basically like the who runs it then
I've also been chair delegate you name
it in a bunch of different conferences I
also attended Harvard mu in 2023 in
January in Boston so I also included
that and again showing impact for
example a Time best delegate award in
Nationwide conferences things like that
and lastly music so I was section leader
for the woodwinds um at our school
symphonic orchestra and then regarding
piano I composed for myself for National
competitions Etc and I'm also certified
by Yamaha Japan for advanced aptitude so
I obtain the highest level possible as a
student in their sort of grading system
I'll include it here and so again I
encourage you to seek out these things
it's like okay I play piano really good
allow me to Showcase that try to look
for those opportunities to really
showcase it CU it a looks great on your
college applications and B allows you to
really demonstrate that impact that
you're creating and that it's not just a
thing that you do as a hobby but it's
also a thing that you truly love and
you're dedicated to it's not just oh
yeah whatever I P play piano everyone
can say they play piano but if you're
able to do these sort of things that's
where you really stand out and it's also
relatively easy to do if you take things
seriously and at the same time are
relaxed and have fun because if you have
fun you're able to excel at the things
you do and then if you're excellent the
things you do you can compete and win
and do all these things and be certified
and so just try to enjoy the process
that's my biggest piece of advice and
lastly let's move on to
honors so in terms of the honors section
on the Common App there's a Max of five
slots uh I filled them out so the first
one was the world Roba Olympia thing I
was mentioning this one was the
international one it was in 10th Grade
so we won second place worldwide at the
world robot Olympiad out of 40,000
students and I believe something like
14,000 teams so it's definitely my
biggest one do list them in order of
relevance so I put this one first and
then second I put the national one which
we won first place in Costa Rica in
order to qualify for the international
finals then thirdly I received a grant
the manishi Grant from 1517 fund which
is that US based vental Capital firm I
was talking about so I included that
that was in my senior year so quite
recently first semester just in time for
my college apps and then fourthly
the Yamaha Japan certification then
lastly pre-calculus thing I was talking
about to obain both pre-calculus and
Calculus 1 certifications from the
Technical University of Costa Rica in
that du enrollment program I was talking
about and this was in both 10th and 11th
grade 11th grade for calculus as part of
the IB diploma uh we did this on the
side so that was my five Awards just to
conclude again you've probably seen this
in just about every stats video out
there however is incredibly subjective I
quite frankly do not know how I got in
uh I'm going to read my admissions file
when I get into college obviously they
want to find out exactly why but at the
end of the day you have to remember it's
incredibly subjective like I got into
Yale but got rejected from Princeton for
example another year it could have been
the other way around I got into
Princeton and rejected from Yo Etc and
you just got to remember not to take
things too seriously it's not personal
you might be the greatest applicant in
the world but you don't fit the need for
diversity or the role that that
particular School wants you to fill
right and so you might just get lucky
you might not so apply broadly I
encourage you to do that obviously
within limits uh if you're not aiming
for a leue schools don't feel pressured
to apply to them they're not the Holy
Grail everyone is going to be happy
probably if they apply to the right
schools for them that fill their needs
so the School wants you to fill their
needs and you must look for schools that
fill your needs and fulfill what you
want in this life 4 years is a long time
and so you want to make sure you're at
the best place for you at the end of the
day whether you go to school X School y
or School Z probably your life outcome
is going to be the same if you work hard
and are disciplined and have fun along
the way that's the most important part
remember to have fun enjoy the journey
and don't take it too seriously have a
serious mindset but don't take things
heavily enough to where it is impairing
your ability to enjoy life we all have
one life and make it worth living so
I'll make a more detailed advice video
later and go into my essays things like
that for every school Etc so subscribe
like comment if you want to see my
reaction video I've linked it somewhere
up here it's also in the description
thank you so much for watching best of
luck if you do have any questions do
reach out to me and do know not forget
enjoy the journey and have fun
[Music]
bye-bye
関連動画をさらに表示
HOW TO: Apply to the University of Kentucky as a Transfer Student
Having Intention in High School | Basra Keynan | TEDxYouth@AnnArbor
Viewing My Stanford Admissions File | How I Actually Got In
don't know what extracurricular to start in 2024? i gotchu.
How to be the best NCSSM Applicant in your District
Fmr. Asst. Dean of Admissions at Stanford sharing U.S. College Admission tips
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)